11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything - Remastered

Philip Graham
Nearly an hour and a half of languid, masterly improvisation, and some of the best looping since the glory days of John Martyn.No complaints here!
Favorite track: Minor Miracles (remastered).

Digital Album

Streaming + Download

Immediate download 11-album in your choice of 320k mp3, Apple Lossless, 24bit FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
The album has been completely remastered for your listening comfort and pleasure.
How much? The deal is, ‘pay what you think it’s worth’. So could be as little as a the £3 minimum or as much as you currently have in the bank. Payments are via PayPal or Credit/Debit Card.
This is your chance to get involved in the discussion
about the value of music. And to, quite figuratively, put some money where your mouth is. If you want to literally put money where your mouth is, feel free to roll up a £20 note and pretend to smoke it while you type in your paypal/CC details.
So, think all albums should cos £10? pay that. Think this is the greatest thing you’ve ever heard and want to pay £30 for it? That’s also fine. It’s also great if you want to pay £3 for it, because hey, you buy loads of music and don’t really want to bankrupt yourself because of it. Please, don’t overstretch yourself. Food and rent are more important.
I guess somewhere between the aforementioned £1/everything seems wise, but please, if you're unsure, give it a few listens here before deciding. If you want to pay later, that's fine too.
You're a grown-up, you understand how this music making thing works, what it costs, what the money you pay for it makes possible... Your time has value too. Calculate it based on that, if you like... We just hope you enjoy it!...more

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11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything - Remastered!

Just over a year ago, I released 11 Reasons Why 3 Is Greater Than Everything. My first studio solo bass album in 5 years. It’s already my most successful digital album ever, but now it’s been completely remastered (and in a couple of cases, remixed).

Why?

In the last year, I’ve learned a whole lot more about mastering - the process of taking the mixed tracks and making the final finished product out of them. It’s a bit of a dark art, and mainly involves compression and EQ with a few other bits of fairy-dust thrown in. The process of mixing Believe In Peace was a really educational one, and from there, looking back at 11 Reasons, I thought I could do a better job… so I have.

One of the joys of digital releases is that there’s nothing stopping the art from growing with the artist - our fixed idea of recordings being set in stone is just because of the ‘tyranny of recording’ that has dominated music for the last 60 or 70 years. Before that, the salable element in music was sheet music and every single experience of that music was unique.

Now, recordings are malleable and as we learn more, we can incorporate that learning without having to do another expensive CD run.

So here it is - new and improved. I *love* the sound of the record now. If you’ve already bought it, please download it again for free. If it’s a massive improvement for you, feel free to come and pay more for it too ;)

More remasters to follow….

About The Album:

<3 - see, 3 Is Greater than EVERYTHING. This is an album about love, journeying, gratitude, growing older, enjoying London, becoming a dad, being comfortable having fewer and fewer answers but better and better questions...

The album has ended up being a LOT longer than I first intended. I’m not generally a fan of massively long albums, but one of the joys of digital music is that it’s pretty easy to rearrange a collection of music to suit the listener. So while it definitely hangs together as an 11 song set, with a beginning a middle and an end, you’re more than welcome to cherry-pick playlists of the tracks that make most sense to you at any one time. Or indeed, to sit back with a glass of wine, put it on the big speakers, turn the lights down and just listen for 80 minutes, like it’s a film in 11 discreet acts...

The recording took place between October 2010 and April 2011, with the album mixed and mastered in April/May 20011, then Remastered in Birmingham, May 2012. The majority of it was recorded at Muswell Hall studios, using all my own toys, but the amazing head-space and mellowness of the surroundings played a big part in the relaxed nature of it. It’s a SLOOOOW record. Nothing happens too fast, there are no clever twiddly up-tempo tunes (my next project may well be an EP of clever twiddly up-tempo stuff, as I rather like playing those tunes!)

So, two tunes - Travelling North and Nothing Can Prepare - were recorded at our flat in Catford, and The Time It Takes was recorded live at a gig in Sandwich in Kent in April 2011.

credits

released May 25, 2012

Everything on here was played by me, in real time. There are a handful of edits - boring bits chopped out of the middle, rogue notes 'disappeared', but it's basically me live in the studio. Except The Time It Takes, which is me live live.

Here’s a gear list for the recording:

Recorded in Reaper (reaper.fm) on a MacBook, making liberal use of Blue Cat Multi-band Mixer plug in, and the OhmBoyz filter delay.
The Basses are all my Modulus 6 string basses. One fretted one fretless, with Bass Centre Elites Strings, and East UK Preamps.
The weird noises are courtesy of my Lexicon MPX-G2 processor, and my Line 6 DL4 (which is courtesy of Mike Smith). The Looping is, as always, via the awesome and amazing Looperlative LP1, controlled via my Keith McMillen SoftStep controller.
There’s no eBow on here, but that’s just cos the battery was flat.
There’s a lot of slide - I used two Jim Dunlop Slides, a really heavy one, and a lighter brass one.
The recording and mixing interface is a MOTU Ultralite Mk III.
I listened to it all as I was recording it on Mark Audio AS602 speakers, and then on Sennheiser HD25 headphones, and referenced on Alesis M1 Mk II Actives.
All the cables are lovingly made by the awesome Tony Farinella at Evidence Audio.

Thanks - no solo album is ever actually just the work of one person. Despite me playing, recording, mixing and mastering all of the music on here, I’m beholden to the wisdom and generosity of a whole load of people, foremost amongst then is my amazing wife Lobelia, whose influence on this music is huge on every level, and our son “Baby Flapjack”, who adds so much to every day of our lives.

Additional thanks to Tim Hall, Steve and Lorna Brown, Mike Outram, Ian Shepherd, Sue Edwards, Trip Wamsley, Todd Reynolds, Neil Alexander, Mike Smith, Laura Kidd, Mike ‘Sizemore’ Atherton, the Amplified gang, The Phunkettes, everyone who has ever hosted a house concert for Lo and I - we’ve loved every last one of ‘em. Long may they continue! A special thanks to the people who choose to converse with me on Twitter - it has become a treasured part of my brain, a permanent community of smart, funny, insightful, creative people, who daily inspire me to think deliberately.

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Steve LawsonUK

The UK's most celebrated solo bassist, here with lots of looped/layered solo albums, & collaborations, most notably with
genius singer Lobelia. Dig in deep, there's a lot to discover. Pretty much all the music here is 'Pay What You Think It's Worth', so listen as much as you like, & do what it says on the tin...As the website strap-line goes, it's the soundtrack to the day you wish you'd had....more

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We used to live on a boat. It was a pretty idyllic setting, a stones throw from Tower Bridge. While a life on the ocean waves (or even the Thames) isn’t without its challenges, it was a remarkable year. This tune is the one thing that I wrote there that has survived (there’s loads of video I recorded there of experimental stuff, trying out ideas, but none of it was worth learning for the album!)

This one is for Steve and Lorna, who we lived with on the boat - their watery adventure continues ever-onwards and upwards, and they’re both a huge inspiration with their creativity and eye-watering work ethic.

Check them out at www.stevebrownphoto.co.uk and www.lornaart.com

Track Name: Travelling North (remastered)

Travelling North.

After the boat, we moved to Catford. It’s where Flapjack was born, where so much changed for us. Our flat there was tiny, and the plan was for it to be temporary, so a year later, we were on the move again. Travelling North, of the river, to Muswell Hill. Full circle for me in London, as I moved here when I first came back to London in the mid-90s. This was the last thing I recorded in Catford, surrounded by boxes and packing stuff.

Track Name: Small Marvels (remastered)

Small Marvels

There are two songs on this album with exactly the same chord progression - they form a pair, at either end of the album. The first is Small Marvels, the second is Minor Miracles. There are so many things to be thankful for in every day life. Mainly tiny things. Not newsworthy, mostly not even blog-worthy. But they make life amazing. As I explored on the album Grace And Gratitude, I have so much to be grateful for, and none of it is earned. Here’s two more thank yous.

Track Name: This Merican Life (remastered)

The Merican Life.

Over the last 3 or 4 years, I’ve had the chance to meet a whole load of really inspirational creative people via the wonders of the interwebs. My first decade online was spent predominantly with bassists. The rapid acceleration of social media stuff last in the last decade lead to that pool of online friends broadening a lot.

One such creative chum is Mike Atherton. AKA Sizemore ( www.sizemore.co.uk ) He’s a writer, of pretty much anything. Lately he’s been writing TV and film stuff, including a rather fun short called Precision.

He came over for a chat (and to return my speakers that were used for the audio in the film) just after they made it, and the conversation about sci-fi and films inspired me to go and play. This is what came out. The main character in Mike’s lil film is called Merica Adams - the film has a great soundtrack by Stephen Kilpatrick, which is utterly key to the vibe of the film. A big part of the story. So, for shits and giggles (what the hell does that mean anyway? who does anything ‘for shits’ except take laxatives? would that make you giggle?) I put my ambient track under the film. And, if you start it at 2.45, it fits really well. At some point, I’ll get a copy of the film without the original music, and put it up (if they’ll let me). Til then, consider this a meditation on Merica Adams life away from the guns ‘n’ time travel :)

This was originally called ‘There’s nowhere on earth like London in the Sun’, but then it was obvious that this was exploring something quite specific about London in the Sun - the inner space of wandering the the streets of central london with JUST the right music on headphones, hopefully heading for coffee with someone inspirational.

I decided a few years ago that I needed to up the amount of exercise I got. I’m clearly not a gym kind of person, but I love exploring, so I started getting off of tube journeys a stop or two early whenever I could, in order to get some walking exercise and see more of the city. If you’re ever heading for London’s Glittering West End from the North via the Piccadilly Line, get off at Russell Square and walk down past the British Museum. Likewise if your journey takes you through Kings Cross or St Pancakes - get off there and weave your way through by the University Of London. Some great architecture to see there. But choose your tunes wisely. They make all the difference.

Track Name: I Will Fix It Tonight By Dining On Artichokes (remastered)

I Will Fix It Tonight By Dining On Artichokes

I’ve been a fan of free improvisation for as long as I have played bass. One of my first ever musical projects that actually had a name was a duo called ‘Pigfarm’, where Martin and I would make weird noises into a tape deck, ostensibly to make ourselves laugh, but with the conclusion that the ‘better’ the noise was the funnier it was - that strange noise was as much a learned skill as playing tunes and chords. From that, it was a short leap to buying John Zorn records and developing a love of all things atonal and strange, alongside an ever-growing affection for all things pop.

In the mid 2000s, I was fortunate enough get to play with such improv luminaries as Orphy Robinson, BJ Cole, Jeff Kaiser, Steuart Liebig, and the host of remarkable musicians who graced the stage at Darbucka as part of the Recycle Collective. The musical intersection that we navigated, of spontaneous tonal composition and the kind of atonal/polytonal improvisation that the term ‘free’ usually conjures up, produced some of the most enjoyable and rewarding musical experiences of my life, and I continue to experiment with such a crossover, as on this piece.

Hopefully one day I can resurrect the Recycle Collective, or at least revisit many of the line-ups that were formed through it.

The title here is taken from a tweet by American drone/noise/ambient genius, Emmalee Crane, in response to a conversation about the absence of vegetables in her recent diet. It HAD to be a track title. Didn’t it? :)

Track Name: I Could Get Used To This (remastered)

I Could Get Used To This

When we moved from Catford to Muswell Hill, it was to house-sit for a friend who was away for a few months. The contrast between the dusty industrial landscape of Catford to the leafy, quiet, suburban dwelling in Muswell Hill could hardly be more stark. As much as I love the hustle and bustle of the city, having the space to think - and crucially, to record a lot of music - as well as living next door to a park where we could walk, play and drink coffee in the cafe, was a huge blessing. This is the first thing I recorded when we moved into the new place...

Track Name: Moon Landing On What (remastered)

Moon Landing On What

Another Sizemore inspiration... or at least, a Sizemore-facilitated inspiration. He introduced us to the film Moon - Duncan Jones’ incredible Sci-fi film staring Sam Rockwell. It was a hugely engaging film and one that again sent me off to play some sci-fi soundtrack music.

I’ve never been much of a sci-fi fan, truth be told. I prefer my human stories less interrupted by fanciful technology and willful breaches of scientific possibilities. But I’m coming round to the idea that I may like it more than I thought I did, and it certainly inspires a lot of interesting music in me... So maybe I am a sci-fi fan after all. I’ll hold off on the conventions for a while though, if that’s OK...

The title? Just messing with the phrase moon landing... is the moon the landee or the lander?

Track Name: The Time It Takes (remastered)

The Time It Takes

This is the only actual ‘live’ track on the album, recorded at a fun, strange gig in a MASSIVE industrial building in the South of England - our first ‘office gig’. The place in question is about to be closed down, the work done there moved elsewhere and, most likely, the local economy decimated as a result.

The time it takes to make a decision like that - based, it seems, purely on the economic benefits to the company - see wholly at odds with the time it takes to build the company, build the community around it and then for the entire area to recover from the blow caused by the loss of thousands of jobs and the money they bring in. It seems entirely disporportionate, so this is an (improvised) meditation on the theme of time, power, influence and community.

Track Name: Minor Miracles (remastered)

Minor Miracles

Part two of the set with Small Marvels - a slightly more robust take on the theme, exploring the more jubilant side of all that amazing stuff that happens every day. Thank you for listening and therefor being a part of it.

Track Name: Nothing Can Prepare (remastered)

Nothing Can Prepare

Recorded in the same session at Travelling North, in Catford. When you become a parent, everyone you meet has advice, has tips, has things you should and shouldn’t do, has experiences to share, old wives tales to recount, doctors’ advice to pass on... What became apparent pretty quick was that nothing can prepare you for the encounter with that other human being. Like advice on any relationship, much of it goes out the window in the negotiations that happen between the two - or in this case, three - people. It’s a mad adventure, one I came to with pretty much no expectations, and certainly no sense of desire or need to pass on my DNA. Flapjack doesn’t feel like part of me, any more than the music does once it’s out there being experienced by other people. But my sense of responsibility and love towards him and the music is in no way diminished by seeing them as distinct entities apart from my role in helping them come into existence. I do what I can to guide them, and help them meet the people who will give them wings to fly. Beyond that, I just enjoy the ride.